New field equipment was deployed on several of the CorsicArchive field sites. A second automatic rain collector was set up near Col de Vizzavona right before Christmas 2017. Up until now it is producing equal amounts of samples and problems.
At the beginning of August 2018 a new soil suction probe was installed at our high elevation site near Capanelle ski resort. Although the rocky soil was difficult to penetrate, it could be installed at around 80 cm depth and produced a first sample two weeks afterwards. It will lead to a better understanding of soil water conditions at high elevations and complements the results from the already installed probes at our coastal sites.

The project was presented at the annual meeting of the association for tree-ring research, TRACE 2018 (Tree rings in archaeology, climatology and ecology), in Greifswald with two contributions: an oral presentation about the intra-annual oxygen isotope cycle of tree-ring cellulose from pine trees and a poster presentation about growth trajectories from the two studied pine species.

It is now one year ago that the permanent equipment was installed at the study sites. Samples were collected in biweekly intervals the whole year round. The extreme dry period 2017 (lasting from May to November, leading to a remarkable soil water deficit) was followed by an extreme wet winter with a considerable snow cover at the higher sites making the accessibility of the equipment challenging. A cold period at the end of February brought snowfall even at the coastal locations.

A new cryogenic vacuum extraction device was set up for the extraction of needle, branch and soil water. This device is mandatory for the subproject „Dendroisotopes“. After a test phase the first real tree samples were extracted leading to encouraging results concerning the reproducibility.
(Photography from Christof Utzmeir)

A field week for a group of master students from Erlangen was organised by Achim Bräuning and Sonja Szymczak in July. Dendroecological, botanical and pedological site surveys were conducted in beech and pine forests at the slopes of Monte Renoso. The investigations shall help to better understand the spatial distribution of different forest types and to determine weather the distribution is controlled by ecological parameters or fire frequency.

The project was presented at the annual meeting of Working Group Biogeography („Jahrestreffen des AK Biogeographie“) in Erlangen with two contributions. The poster „Kiefern auf Korsika. Ökologische Differenzierung entlang eines Höhengradienten“ from Martin Häusser, Sonja Szymczak and Achim Bräuning recieved the award for best poster.

Members of all subprojects travelled to Corsica and successfully installed most of the equipment for the permanent measurements: three climate stations, 10 precipitation collectors and 42 dendrometers.